


Time Has No Mercy

by NovaDearest



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Harry Potter Raises Tom Riddle, Hurt/Comfort, Redemption, Tags May Change, Time Travel, Young Tom Riddle, harry potter adopts tom riddle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24435355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaDearest/pseuds/NovaDearest
Summary: After a painstaking and brutal war against Voldemort, Harry Potter loses his friends and family. He would do anything to change it. He goes back to 1936 in an attempt to change Tom Riddle. But can he succeed?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	1. Moving Through Time

Chapter 1: Moving Through Time

January 10, 1936

The snow came down in heavy, white tufts as Harry walked down the narrow streets of London. He could almost feel himself suffocating from the frigid air as he neared his final destination. As he looked around, he could make out the shapes of dark brick buildings, crystalized by the cruel nature of winter. Inside these buildings lay an assortment of different people - including but not limited to - a poor, freezing, poverty-stricken family who all lay soundly in slumber, an old woman nearing her last days who, due to her worsening condition of old age, seemingly would melt away with the snow, and a young couple curled up together for shelter from the especially cold and cruel winter.  
Harry stopped for a moment. What was he doing? He was currently going to try and save an evil man - an evil man who had murdered his parents, his friends, his family… “That’s enough”, he thought to himself. “He isn’t Voldemort yet. He’s still innocent. You can’t think like that.” He broke the silence as he continued walking, his heels clicking on the cobble streets creating a steady, even tempo. “I have to try to save him, at least.” he determined while fading into the night.

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A few hours earlier…

Harry groaned as he felt himself gaining consciousness. His head throbbed as he rubbed away the sleep from his eyes. He felt around for his glasses until he finally grasped them and put them on. He looked around an unfamiliar room and saw an unfamiliar man. The man was rather plump with ragged clothes and dirty brown boots. He had a round, rat like face that was reminiscent of Peter Pettigrew. This immediately put Harry on edge. He warily felt around in his cloak for his wand, relaxing slightly as he found it. He sat up straighter and looked at the man.

“Who are you? Where am I?” Harry said with a slight edge of panic in his voice.

“I suppose I should explain what happened.” The man paused. “ Who am I? Well, my name is Floyd Turner. We are currently at my Inn that I run with my wife, Elizabeth. My wife had gone outside for a moment this morning when she found you on the ground, unconscious. She ran inside to find me and together we helped to bring you into the room. You’ve been out the entire evening.” He then turned to look Harry sternly in the eye. “I don’t know what happened to you, but you ought to be more careful. You could have easily frozen to death.”

Harry chuckled as he remembered what he had done. “That’s right. I went back. To change things.” He cleared his throat to speak. “Thank you, sir. I apologize for the trouble I may have caused.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of galleons. The man was presumably a muggle. However, the galleons were made of gold, so he supposed they could be worth something to the man. “Here. Take these for your troubles.” Harry thrusted the coins at the man. “It’s gold. I know it’s not conventional payment but I think you and your wife will still be able to use it.” Harry quickly got up to leave. 

“Wait!” yelled the man. 

Harry turned to him. “I understand you must have a lot of questions.” He paused. “But those are questions I can’t answer. I am very grateful for your hospitality but I’m afraid I must leave.”  
Harry ran out of the door and into the streets before the man had time to protest.

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Harry approached Wool’s Orphanage. He looked up and viewed the decrepit building. It was a stony grey in terrible need of maintenance. At the center lay a towering dark door guarded by a spiked fence. Above the fence, he observed the lettering,“Wool's Orphanage”. He solemnly took in the prison-like appearance of the orphanage. He walked through the gates and apprehensive placed his hand on the cold doorknob.

“It’s time. I have to change everything.  
”  
Harry took a deep breath and entered through the threshold into a chilly entrance hall.  
As he entered, Harry saw a mousy woman who was busy filing through paperwork that he assumed was Mrs. Cole. He approached her and cleared his throat.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” he said kindly.

She looked up at him with curiosity.

“My name is Harry Jameson. I have come here to inquire about one of your residents. Tom Riddle?”

“Tom Riddle!”, she said with wide eyes. “Are you sure you are talking about the right boy?”

“Quite.” He smiled at Mrs. Cole. “I’m interested in adopting him”

“Adopting him?”, she said apprehensively. “I suppose… but I must warn you. Tom is quite... unusual. He doesn’t seem to get along right with the other children. Are you really sure you have the right boy?”

Harry looked at her with conviction. “Yes, he is most definitely the boy I am looking for. Now, would you be so kind as to show me to his room? I would like to speak with him as soon as possible.”

“Of course!” she squeaked out. “Right this way.

Harry followed Mrs. Cole up a dark, creaky stairwell. They reached the top and Mrs. Cole led him down a dark hallway and stopped in front of a worn door at the end of the hall. She looked at him.

“This is his room.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you. Now, If I could have a moment alone?”

“Of course! I will leave you to it.” 

Harry smirked as he watched Mrs. Cole rush down the hallway. He stared at the door. He reached to knock and quickly hesitated. 

“This is it. I’m finally going to see him. But can I do it?” 

Truthfully, he was worried. This was the man who killed Mum, Dad, Cedric, his friends…

“No.”, he thought to himself sternly, “I can’t start to think like that. He’s just a boy. He’s still innocent. He hasn’t done any of these things. I’ve come here to save him and that’s what I have to do.”

Harry took a deep breath. He took a step forward and knocked on the door deliberately.

“It’s time.”


	2. Born Innocent

Chapter 2: Born Innocent

...Harry took a deep breath. He took a step forward and knocked on the door deliberately.

“It’s time.”...

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“Come in” a small, despondent voice answered.

Harry slowly turned the doorknob to find a small boy peering up distrustfully at him. The boy, Tom Riddle, had dark hair with dark eyes to match. He was dressed in worn clothing that seemed to suit his dejected demeanor. Harry glanced around the room. The boy was sitting with a book on his lap on a small cot in a ragged room. The walls around were painted a dull beige and were chipped and the window was completely opaque with frost and snow. He smelled a strong mustiness that was a strong indicator of poor ventilation in the building. Harry finally laid his eyes back on Tom. 

“Hello, My name is Harry.” He knelt down to the boy’s level and began to speak again. “You must be Tom Riddle.”

The boy looked at him warily, but he could also see the curiosity evident in his attentiveness. The boy was silent. Harry cleared his throat and started to talk once again.

“I’ve come to tell you that you need to pack up your belongings. I’m bringing you home with me. There is much I have to discuss with you but we don’t have much time before Mrs. Cole will be expecting me.”

Tom looked at Harry incredulously. “What? You’re adopting me. Why? Who said I even want to come with you!”,Tom said accusingly.

Harry sighed. He pulled out his wand and looked down at it. It was a supple holly wand with a phoenix core, and the very same wand that would be a brother to the young boy’s future wand. The brother that would kill his parents. “No”, he thought. “Now is not the time for this.” He looked up and held Tom’s gaze for a moment. Tom glanced down at Harry’s wand with confusion apparent on his face.

“What is that thing?” he said spitefully.

“Tom, you are a very special boy.”, Harry calmly replied.

Tom looked at him confused.

“Have you ever noticed that you are… different?” 

“Different, how?”

“Different as in… strange things happen around you. Different as in things that aren’t possible suddenly become possible.”

Tom lit up. “Like, almost magical things…”

Harry nodded.

“Yes. Like sometimes when I’m upset, I can make bad things happen to the other kids. I know I have power. I also know I’m different, maybe even better, than the other kids. They can’t do those things.”

Harry inwardly cringed at Tom’s response. “This is gonna be a lot harder than I thought. At the very least I have to try…” he pondered.

“Yes, Tom. Things like that.”

Tom spoke again. “I also can talk to snakes. Mrs. Cole caught me talking to a snake in the garden and yelled at me. But I swear, I really was talking to it!”

Harry smiled at him. “I believe you, Tom. I believe you because I talk to snakes as well. It’s not a very common gift.”

Tom peered over at Harry’s wand.

“So what’s that thing?”

“It’s my wand.”

Tom was dumbfounded. “Your… wand?”

Harry gave a warm smile.

“Incendio!”

Suddenly, Tom’s wardrobe erupted in flames.

“Hey! My stuff is in there! Stop it!”

With a wave of his wand, the flames completely vanished.  
Harry grinned at Tom while fondly remembering Hagrid and his first encounter with magic. 

“You’re a wizard, Tom.”

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Harry walked silently down the hallway of Wool’s Orphanage. He couldn’t stop thinking about how strange the past ten minutes had been. Harry shook his head in disbelief. He had told Tom to pack his things and be ready to leave at 10:00 the next morning. Tom had had no objections. Although Tom hid his excitement behind his cold demeanor, Harry could see that Tom desperately wanted to be free of the Orphanage.

“I can hardly blame him”, Harry thought while remembering his childhood with the Dursley’s.

The day Hagrid had told him about the magical world was the best day of his entire life. He knew his life was going to change forever, much to his Aunt and Uncle’s displeasure. It was the day he was free from the Dursley’s. Although he still had to live with them every dreadful summer, it was never the same. At least when he started at Hogwarts, he had something to look forward to at the end of summer.

Harry could see that Tom strongly paralleled himself. In fact, it scared him to see just how very similar he and Voldemort were. “No --TOM”, he corrected. He sighed to himself. He was just going to get over it, he had no choice. It sometimes was hard to remember that young Tom Riddle had not committed the atrocities of the notorious Lord Voldemort. After all, everyone is born innocent. Harry just prayed that the darkness he saw present in the boy could be remedied. 

Harry walked down the stairs to find Mrs. Cole. She was gazing at him expectantly. Harry gave her a brief smile and approached her.

“I will arrive at 10:00 tomorrow morning to pick up Tom.”

“Are you serious. Everything went… well?”

Mrs. Cole appeared as if she could hardly believe that Harry had still wanted to adopt Tom. Tom was a very cold child. Not a child families wanted. Mrs. Cole was certainly not upset to see Tom go. She didn’t like Tom one bit and didn’t try to hide it. Quite frankly, she was almost giddy at the prospect of no more Tom.

“I have papers you must sign, then…”

“I will be back tomorrow.”

Mrs. Cole didn’t like that. She would prefer it if Harry would sign the adoption papers sooner rather than later. It would give him no time to change his mind and she would like to be rid of Tom as soon as possible.

“Are you sure? I already have them ready for you, all you have to do is read them over-”

“No.”, Harry replied indignantly. “I have arrangements I need to make for tomorrow and I’m on a bit of a time crunch. I will be back.”

Harry gave Mrs. Cole one last smile and headed back out into the cold.

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Harry had apparated to Hogsmeade to make the walk to Hogwarts. He had always enjoyed walks to clear his head and have time to think, and Harry did have a lot to think about. He had a plan. He would take Tom to the only place he had ever considered home-- Hogwarts. He had traveled back to 1936 purposely because he knew that's when the Defense Against the Dark Arts position would open up. A position he planned on filling. He had done his research and found that around Christmas of 1936 the old DADA professor, Maxwell Kingston, had suffered health complications which he had no choice but to retire from. Tom at this time had just turned 10 years old. He wouldn’t be able to attend Hogwarts until the fall of 1938 but Harry supposed he could just bring Tom along. After all, in Hogwarts he supposed he could keep a closer eye on Tom. 

After a bit, Harry finally approached the school. He gazed up at the magnificent castle that lay before him. Even after all these years, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry never ceased to awe Harry. He walked through the gates. The halls were buzzing. The Hogwarts students had just gotten back from Christmas break and were still hung over with Christmas excitement. He walked through the chattering students towards the headmasters office until he caught the gaze of a pair of twinkling blue eyes. The eyes of Albus Dumbledore. Harry was filled with emotion. He hadn’t seen this man since the night of his death in the astronomy tower. Harry quickly composed himself and walked over to the man.

“Hello. And who might you be?” The future headmaster smiled at Harry, but Harry could see a hint of suspicion behind the smile. Harry smiled back.

“I’m Harry Jameson. I’m here to inquire about the Defense Against the Dark Arts position? I heard there was an opening.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jameson. I’m Albus Dumbledore. I am the Transfiguration Professor of Hogwarts.

“No need to call me Mr. Jameson. Harry will do just fine.” Harry said while smiling at the man. “I was wondering if you could show me to the Headmaster Dippet’s office. I’m afraid I never attended this school and don’t quite know the way.”

“Of course.”, Dumbledore kindly replied.

Dumbledore led Harry through the halls.

“Where are you from? You didn’t attend Hogwarts, you said.”

Harry smiled at him. He had gone over his alibi many times in his head, but he knew that Dumbledore was a very suspicious man. He wasn’t sure if he could fool him. Harry clung onto the hope that perhaps the younger Dumbledore wasn’t quite as omnipotent as the Dumbledore he had known.

“I’m from America. I was actually born here, in England. My folks and I moved to America when I was seven. I had attended Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I moved back to England a few months ago.”

Harry honestly couldn’t gauge Dumbledore’s reaction. Dumbledore seemed to buy it, but Harry never really knew with him.

The pair approached the familiar gargoyle statue that guarded the Headmaster’s Office.

“Here we are!”, Dumbledore spoke and clapped his hands together. “Hippogriff!”

The stairs started to move and form a path up to the office.

“I will leave you here. Just go right up to the office. Headmaster Dippet will be there.”

“Thank you.” 

Harry gave Dumbledore an earnest smile. The old man’s eyes twinkled brightly.

“Of course, Harry.”

Dumbledore walked swiftly back down the hallway and Harry was left alone. Harry took a deep breath remembering all the times he had come to this office to see Dumbledore as a student. He had missed Dumbledore dearly. Harry finally gathered up his Gryffindor courage and began to walk up the stairs.


End file.
